Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae plans to leave for the U.S. on Monday for a weeklong trip to New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, they added.
In Washington, he is scheduled to meet Acting Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman and senior Congressmen including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA).
Rubio is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, and Royce chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"The two sides are expected to share the assessment of North Korea's attitude and South-North relations and discuss how South Korea and the U.S. will deal with North Korea next year," a senior ministry official told reporters.
Ryoo's visit comes nearly two years after the launch of the Park administration and its "Korea Trust Building Process," he noted.
The minister also plans to attend the Korea Global Forum to be hosted by the East Asia Institute and hold a roundtable meeting with American experts on North Korea.
Before flying into the U.S. capital on Tuesday (local time), Ryoo will travel to New York, where he is to meet officials from the UNFPA, UNICEP, and the UNDP for talks on humanitarian aid for the North.
On his way back to Seoul, he will stop by Los Angeles, home to the largest Korean community in the U.S., to deliver a lecture to youth there.
It will be the first trip to the U.S. by South Korea's unification minister since 2011, when Ryoo's predecessor, Yu Woo-ik, visited there.